1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and a method for transmitting a Hopping Pilot Beacon (HPB) signal in a communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The number of Frequency Assignments (FAs) has increased due to the increased number of subscribers. Thus, different numbers of FAs are used by base stations located in a downtown area and base stations located in a peripheral area, or even in base stations located in the same downtown area. A Pilot Beacon scheme has been used in such situations, and provides only a pilot channel without a traffic channel in order to induce a smooth handover between base stations. An object of the Pilot Beacon scheme is to notify a mobile terminal of frequency use information of a base station or a sector, to which the mobile terminal will handover, and code information and time information of a pilot channel.
A scheme involving time division multiplexing and using the Pilot Beacon signal for a plurality of frequencies, instead of consistently using the Pilot Beacon signal for a single frequency, is defined as a frequency Hopping Pilot Beacon (HPB) signal.
Typically, the number of HPB signals that are to be used for a plurality of subcarriers allocated in an entire cell, and a subcarrier-set available for each HPB signal, may be determined based on a system bandwidth. Each HPB signal may be mapped to one subcarrier in a subcarrier-set in each symbol period, during which the HPB signal is transmitted. The mapped subcarrier may be determined based on a pilot beacon hopping pattern or a pilot beacon code, and may depend on a cell identifier and/or other information being transmitted through the pilot beacon signal.